Paul is showing the Corinthians that if they have been led away from his teaching, especially from belief in the resurrection of the dead on which it is based, they will lose everything they have believed.

When Paul calls the Corinthian Christians his brothers, he establishes the basis for most of his subsequent assertions. For we became brothers through the work of Christ in his earthly life and death. After all, what is the gospel but the message that God became man, was crucified and rose again? This is what the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary,^[1] what the prophets preached to the world and what all the apostles truthfully proclaimed.

The resurrection of the body is the whole point of our gospel message. Without it, all the works of prayer and fasting which we do are meaningless.

The Corinthians did not need to learn the doctrine, which they already knew, but they had to be reminded of it and corrected from their errors in understanding it.

The prophet Isaiah said: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter [Is 53:7] and so on. Revelation [13:8] adds that he was slain from before the foundation of the world. And Deuteronomy [28:66] says: You will see your life hanging before your eyes, yet you will not believe. This is expressed in the future tense, to prevent the wicked from claiming that it does not apply to Christ.

The iniquity of sinners was not as great as the justice of the One who died for them. The sins we committed were not as great as the justice he embodied, when he laid down his life for us.

How could Christ die for sinners if he were a sinner himself? If in fact he died for our sins, then it is clear that he himself must have been sinless. Therefore he did not die the death of sin but the death of the body. This is what the Scriptures everywhere proclaim.

The Son loses nothing when he bestows upon all, just as he also loses nothing when the Father receives the kingdom, nor does the Father suffer loss when he gives what is his own to the Son.

He made his life be an exchange for the life of all. One died for all, in order that we all might live to God sanctified and brought to life through his blood, justified as a gift by his grace.

This serves to confirm that Christ died a genuine human death and points us once more to the Scriptures for proof. Nowhere does Scripture mean the death of sin, when it makes mention of our Lord’s death, but only the death of the body, and a burial and resurrection of that same body.

Hosea [6:2] says: He will revive us after two days; he will raise us up on the third day.

Paul reminded us that we are to confess the manner of the death and resurrection not so much by literally naming these things but strictly according to the testimony of the Scriptures, so that our understanding of his death might be in accord with the apostles. . . . He did this in order that we might not become helpless or to be tossed about by the winds of useless disputes or hampered by the absurd subtleties of unsound opinions.

Evidently Matthias was chosen to replace Judas before Jesus ceased appearing to the disciples after his resurrection.^[1]

The gospel tells us that he appeared first to Mary.^[1] But as far as men were concerned, he appeared first to those who most wanted to see him. But which of the apostles are meant here? For Matthias was not added to their number until after the ascension. However, it is likely that Christ appeared even after his ascension into heaven. Paul does not specify the time but merely records the experience.

Note that he does not say to the eleven, and neither does John (Jn 20:24), who writes that Thomas was one of the twelve. We should probably say that either he has included Matthias with the other apostles by anticipation or else that he is still thinking of Judas, even after his betrayal and hanging.

This is not recorded in the Gospels, but Paul knew it independently of them.

He appeared to Cephas; and after that to the twelve. So if you disbelieve one witness, you have twelve witnesses. Then he was seen by more than five hundred people at once—if they disbelieve the twelve, then listen to the five hundred. After that he was seen by James, his own brother and the first overseer of this [Jerusalem] diocese. Since so noteworthy a bishop was privileged to see the risen Christ, along with the other disciples, do not disbelieve. But you may say that his brother was a biased witness. So then he continues: He was seen by me. But who am I? I am Paul, his enemy! I was formerly a persecutor but now preach the good news of the resurrection.

Paul does not say that some have died but that they have fallen asleep, thereby confirming the truth of the resurrection.

This must be James, the Lord’s brother, whom he ordained as the first bishop of Jerusalem.^[1] The apostles mentioned here would include the seventy and others besides the Twelve.^[2]

We believe and confess that, rising on the third day from the dead, according to the Scriptures, he was seen by his holy disciples and others, as it is written. He ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father when he will come at the end of time to raise up all men and to render to each according to his works.

By this he makes it clear that there are other apostles besides those eleven.

By untimely Paul means that he was born again outside time, because he received his apostleship from Christ after the latter had ascended into heaven.

Paul may have been the last but he was certainly not the least, since he was more illustrious than many who were before him, indeed, more illustrious than them all.

Paul compares himself here to an aborted fetus which is not even regarded by some as fully born.

Paul is least because he was the last in time, not because he was inferior in any way to the others.

Paul says this because he was a humble man and also because it is what he really thought about himself. He was forgiven for having persecuted the church, but it was a shame he never forgot. It taught him the greatness of God’s grace toward him.

These words apply to those who complain: Why wasn’t I created such that I would be free from sin forever? Why was I fashioned such a vessel that I could not endure hard like metal instead of being fragile and easily broken whenever touched? . . . Let us blush and say what those say who have already obtained their rewards. Let us, who are sinners on earth and encased in this fragile and mortal body, say what we know the saints are saying in heaven.

If the apostle makes such a confession, how much more should the sinner? Scripture says: The just man accuses himself when he begins to speak.^[1] If the just man is prompt to accuse himself, how much more should the sinner be?

He who endured imprisonment, wounds and beatings, who netted the world with epistles, who was called by a heavenly voice, humbled himself, saying, I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle.

The Enemy is more completely vanquished in the case of a man over whom he holds fuller sway.

Paul says all this in order to show that despite his great sins and unworthiness, the grace of God was not given to him for nothing.

He who spends his time in softness and all laxity because of his luxurious living, who is clothed in purple and fine linen and feasting every day in splendid fashion^[1] and who flees the labors imposed by virtue has neither labored in this life nor will live in the future, but he will see life afar off, while being racked in the fire of the furnace.

If Paul was so humble, why did he call attention to his labors? He had to do this in order to justify his right to be a trustworthy witness and a teacher.

You are familiar with Paul, who labored so much and erected so many trophies in combat with the devil. He physically marched throughout the known world. He orbited the earth, ocean, air—he circled the world as if he had wings. He was stoned, beaten and murdered. He suffered everything for the name of God, called from above by a heavenly voice. . . . We know, we understand, he said, the grace we have received, and it did not find me inattentive.

Gladly and with the eyes of faith do all in the City of God look up to this great man, Paul, this athlete of Christ, who was anointed by Christ and instructed by him. With him he was nailed to the cross, and through him made glorious. This man was made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. He lawfully carried on a great conflict in the theater of this world and strained forward to the prize of his heavenly calling.

This is the perfect and consummate glory in God: not to exult in one’s own righteousness, but recognizing oneself as lacking true righteousness, to be justified by faith in Christ alone. Paul gloried in despising his own righteousness. In seeking after the righteousness by faith which is of God through Christ, he sought only to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death, so as to attain to the resurrection from the dead. . . . It is God who grants efficacy to our labors.

Did you see how he reaped the benefit of God’s liberality and then how abundantly he contributed his own share, by his zeal, his fervor, his faith, his courage, his patience, his lofty mind and his undaunted will? This is why he deserved a larger measure of help from above.

Paul did not labor in order to receive grace, but he received grace so that he might labor.

How, then, is God’s commandment accomplished, even with difficulty, without his help, since if the Lord does not build, the builder is said to have labored in vain.

Paul does not expect the Corinthians to choose between him and the other apostles. He justifies his own credentials as a teacher but at the same time affirms the others as well. There is no difference between them, since their authority is the same.

Paul grounds his argument for the resurrection of the dead on the fact of Christ’s resurrection. The reality of the latter guarantees the reality of the former.

How grave an offense it is not to believe in the resurrection of the dead. If we do not rise again, Christ died in vain and did not rise again. For if he did not rise for us, he did not rise at all, because there is no reason why he should rise for himself.

When the apostle says to the Corinthians, How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? he shows plainly that not all of them were claiming this but that some were, and that it is clear they were not outside but among them. . . . If we had not read in the same letter that the testimony of Christ is confirmed in you so that nothing is wanting to you in any grace, we might otherwise have concluded that all the Corinthians were carnal-minded and sensual, not discerning the Spirit of God, quarrelsome, envious, walking according to man.^[1]

The one depends on the other. Either you believe both, or you believe neither.

Christ died and rose again for nothing if we are not to rise again as well.

Some heretics claim that there is a resurrection of the soul but not of the body, though this makes no sense. How can there be a resurrection of something which has not fallen into the ground and died?

Logically Paul would have said here that if Christ had not been raised, historical facts would have been denied, but instead he says something which is much more relevant and indeed frightening to the Corinthians. For if Christ had not risen from the dead, then Paul’s preaching would have been useless and their faith would have no meaning.

Forgiveness of sins comes through the resurrection.

If a lie directed against the temporal life of another is detestable, how much more so is one prejudicial to his eternal life. Such is every lie voiced in the teaching of religion. On that account, the apostle terms it false witness if anyone lies about Christ, even in what might seem to pertain to his praise.

Our preaching would not just be pointless, it would be downright false, if this were the case.

In other words, if you accept that Christ rose from the dead, believe that we shall rise again also.

If Christ lied about his resurrection, then he lied about his claim to forgive our sins also.

If the cross is an illusion, the resurrection is an illusion also, and if Christ has not risen, we are still in our sins. If the cross is an illusion, the ascension is also an illusion, and everything, finally, becomes unsubstantial.

If Christ did not rise again, neither was he slain, and if he was not slain, our sins have not been taken away. If our sins have not been taken away, we are still in them, and our entire faith is meaningless.

Paul says this because the Corinthians will not want to listen to the false prophets once they realize that if they do so their dead, whom they love, will be taken from them.

Paul has the martyrs in mind above all. They would have lost their lives in vain if there was no other life to look forward to.

Paul says this, not because to hope in Christ is miserable but because Christ has prepared another life for those who hope in him. For this life is liable to sin. The life above is reserved for our reward.

It is clear that we hope in Christ both for this life and for the next one. Christ does not abandon his servants but gives them grace, and in the future they will dwell in eternal glory.

Even if the soul remains, being infinitely immortal, without the flesh it will not receive those hidden blessings. If the body does not rise again, the soul remains uncrowned with the blessings stored up for it in heaven. In that case, we have nothing to hope for, and our rewards are limited to this life. What could be more wretched than that?

Therefore Christ is not to be hoped in for this life only, in which the bad can do more than the good, in which those who are more evil are happier, and those who lead a more criminal life live more prosperously.

Touching the resurrection of the dead [1 Cor 15:12], let us first inquire how some persons then denied it. No doubt in the same way in which it is even now denied, since the resurrection of the flesh always has men to deny it. But many wise men claim a divine nature for the soul, and are confident of its undying destiny, and even the multitude worship the dead in the presumption they boldly entertain that their souls survive. As for our bodies, however, it is clear that they perish either at once by fire or the wild beasts, or even when most carefully kept by the passage of time. When, therefore, the apostle refutes those who deny the resurrection of the flesh, he defends, in opposition to them, the precise matter of their denial, that is, the resurrection of the body. You have the whole answer wrapped up in this. All the rest is superfluous. Now on this very point, the resurrection of the dead, it is necessary that the proper force of the words should be accurately maintained. The word dead expresses simply that which has lost the vital principle, by means of which it used to live. Now the body is what loses life, and as the result of losing it becomes dead. To the body, therefore, the term dead is only suitable. Moreover, as resurrection accrues to what is dead, and dead is a term applicable only to a body, only the body alone has a resurrection incidental to it. So the word resurrection , or rising again, embraces only what has fallen down. “To rise,” indeed, can be said of what has never fallen down, but had been lying down. But “to rise again” can be said only of what has fallen down; because it is by rising again, in consequence of its having fallen down, that it is said to have re-risen. For the syllable “re” always implies repetition. We say, therefore, that the body falls to the ground by death, as facts show, in accordance with the law of God. For to the body it was said, “Dust you are, and unto dust shall you return”.